Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Dynamical plasma response during driven magnetic reconnection.

J Egedal1, A Fasoli, J Nazemi

  • 1Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. jegedal@psfc.mit.edu

Physical Review Letters
|April 12, 2003
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Design and upgrades of the TCV fast ion loss detector.

The Review of scientific instruments·2025
Same author

Experimental Observation of the Motion of Ions in a Resonantly Driven Plasma Wakefield Accelerator.

Physical review letters·2025
Same author

Advanced Methods for Analyzing in-Situ Observations of Magnetic Reconnection.

Space science reviews·2024
Same author

Filamentation of a relativistic proton bunch in plasma.

Physical review. E·2024
Same author

Hosing of a Long Relativistic Particle Bunch in Plasma.

Physical review letters·2024
Same author

Implementation of a drive cylinder for low collisional experiments on magnetic reconnection.

The Review of scientific instruments·2023
Same journal

Erratum: Spectroscopy and Ground-State Transfer of Ultracold Bosonic ^{39}K^{133}Cs Molecules [Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 203401 (2025)].

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Erratum: Lifetime of the ^{2}F_{7/2} Level in Yb^{+} for Spontaneous Emission of Electric Octupole Radiation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 213001 (2021)].

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Laser-Plasma Based Seeded Free Electron Laser in the High-Gain Regime.

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Parent Hamiltonians for Stabilizer Quantum Many-Body Scars.

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Properties of Heavy Cosmic Nuclei Phosphorus, Chlorine, Argon, Potassium, and Calcium: Results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Role of Spin-Isospin Symmetries in Nuclear β-Decays.

Physical review letters·2026
See all related articles

Direct measurements reveal magnetic reconnection current channels scale with electron drift orbits, not plasma density or ion mass. This finding establishes new analytic expressions for current profile evolution and electrostatic potential formation during reconnection events.

Area of Science:

  • Plasma physics
  • Magnetic reconnection
  • Astrophysical phenomena

Background:

  • Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process crucial for energy release in space and laboratory plasmas.
  • Understanding the dynamics of the diffusion region is key to controlling reconnection.
  • Previous studies lacked direct measurements of the collisionless current channel.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To obtain direct measurements of the collisionless current channel during driven magnetic reconnection.
  • To determine the scaling of the diffusion region size.
  • To establish analytic expressions for current profile evolution and electrostatic potential formation.

Main Methods:

  • Experiments conducted on the Versatile Toroidal Facility (VTF).

Related Experiment Videos

  • Direct measurements of the collisionless current channel.
  • Analysis of experimental data to derive scaling laws and analytic expressions.

    • Main Results:

    • The size of the diffusion region scales with the electron drift orbit width.
    • This scaling is independent of ion mass and plasma density.
    • Analytic expressions for current profile dynamics and electrostatic potential formation were established.
    • The time response is linked to ion polarization currents.

    Conclusions:

    • Direct measurements provide unprecedented insight into collisionless current channels.
    • Electron drift orbit width is a critical parameter governing reconnection diffusion region size.
    • Established analytic expressions offer a predictive framework for reconnection dynamics.